


All that you need is in your soul

by chaoticcollectorchaos_me



Series: Parabola [11]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, POV Peter Parker, Peter Parker-centric, Pre-Spiderman: Homecoming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-12 12:34:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19132111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaoticcollectorchaos_me/pseuds/chaoticcollectorchaos_me
Summary: Each one of Peter’s family members were, as Director Fury put it nicely, people with “remarkable talents who came together to become something more”.But Peter was neither "remarkable", nor has the potential to become "something more".





	All that you need is in your soul

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from "Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd
> 
> As always, italics are words spoken in Italian

There’s nothing extraordinary about Peter Rogers.

 

Although that depended on whose perspective or opinion you ask. Ask any average Joe on the street and you’d find that there’s nothing ordinary about Peter Rogers. From the peculiar circumstances of his birth at the lobby of Avengers Tower to the family he was born into, Peter seemed to have hit every single one of the “extraordinary” jackpot.

 

There was nobody in the world who are not aware or have a slight inkling of who Peter’s parents are: Tony Stark, owner of Stark Industries, the world’s leading pioneer in sustainable energy, cutting edge electronics and medical advancements as well as environmental protection initiatives, not to mention his alter ego as Iron Man, co-leader of the Avengers and Steve Rogers, legendary war hero, anti- war and workers’ rights activists, advocate for the downtrodden and oppressed and co-leader of the Avengers.

 

The rest of Peter’s family also have celebrity status through achievements of their own. His godparents were none other than Thor and Bruce, the King of Asgard/God of Thunder and a world-renowned Nobel laureate gamma radiation scientist respectively. Among his aunts are Natasha Romanov, best known as the Black Widow, the woman who leaked the dark secrets of the deep infiltration of HYDRA within the ranks of the US government through SHIELD, and Pepper Potts, one of the few beta females to ever become the CEO of a Fortune 500 company and a trailblazer for women everywhere. While among his uncles he was fortunate enough to have Bucky Barnes aka the Winter Soldier, the Hawkeye Clint Barton, James Rhodes the War Machine and Sam Wilson aka the Falcon.

 

Peter’s older brothers were also remarkable in their own distinct ways. Like any other younger sibling in a family, Peter grew up idolizing his big brother. He grew up wanting to be just like his big brother Ulysses. Ulysses was the brave one. He was strong and charismatic, just like Papa. A natural born leader, some of his teachers would say, and Peter wanted to be just like him. Ulysses has an innate ability to inspire, to say the right words at the right time and to instill a sense of belonging, of having a higher purpose than your own selfish needs. Ulysses and Papa were just like two peas in a pod, in that they have always placed service above your own interests. They seemed happiest when they were doing something for other people.

 

Joe might be the spitting image of “pre-serum Papa” as Babbo put it once, but that was where the resemblance ended. While Joe might have inherited some of Papa’s shyness and self-deprecating tendencies, there was no doubt that Babbo was who he took after the most. Joe excelled in robotics, engineering, quantum science, artificial intelligence, whatever Babbo taught him Joe took to it like duck to water. He had even taught himself medicine to cure Uncle Clint’s deafness. While Ulysses’ fans were of the cheerleader, preps and cool kids varieties, Joe’s admirers encompassed the nerds and geeks of Midtown high. As co-captain of the Decathlon team, Joe was basically the end all be all of Midtown High’s nerd community. It’s unspoken, but everyone in the family knew that Joe would eventually succeed Babbo, though in what capacity he would be in was still undecided. Uly had made it clear that he had no interest in running the company in any capacity. He was more interested in expanding what the Maria Stark and September Foundations were doing, increasing their non-profit charity works and funding even more projects in the future. Peter was pretty sure that the combined powers of Uly and Joe were going to change the world for the better.

 

Each one of Peter’s family members were, as Director Fury put it nicely, people with “remarkable talents who came together to become something more”.

 

But Peter was neither "remarkable", nor has the potential to become "something more". 

 

Sure he was pretty smart. Any child of Tony Stark wasn’t capable of being dumb. Uncle Bruce praised his mad chemistry skillz and told him numerous times that he wouldn’t have been able to complete a project or make an experiment work without Peter’s inputs and suggestions. And Peter had to agree with Uncle Bruce on that. The man won a Nobel Prize, okay? Peter wasn’t gonna say no to a compliment for him. Babbo and Joe would always ask him to work with them on any biochem related projects, the latest of which their attempts to further stabilize and deweaponize Extremis which the three of them finally achieved (team work! yay!). His parents, siblings, aunts and uncles all knew their calling in life. Maybe it was by virtue of his age, but Peter was still searching for that one thing that could help him become “something more”.

 

Until that one fateful school field trip to Oscorp where everything changed.

 

* * *

 

 

Breakfast during the weekend was always a spectacle in the Avengers household. Between two super soldiers, an Asgardian, growing teenagers and the Hulk, the whole affair wouldn’t be complete without at least a dozen stacks of pancakes or waffles, depending on who’s cooking that day, two dozen eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits and anything else in between. However, during the weekdays when everyone had prior commitments or other activities, it was a quiet affair. When Peter got to the kitchen that morning, Babbo was nursing a cup of coffee in his arms, eyes bleary and half closed, which meant he just emerged from the workshop after a night of inventing. Papa was away in Michigan, in a show of solidarity with steel factory workers who were striking and demanding a pay raise. These days, Papa’s Captain America duties involved fights that were more of the equality and social justice kind and less of the punching-the-bad-guys type, though those still occur from time to time. Joe was eating his cereal, there were holographs projected all around him by JARVIS, and he would intermittently stop spooning more cereals into his mouth in favor of manipulating a projection.

 

“ _Morning!_ ” Peter greeted them, swiping an apple from a fruit bowl on the counter for a snack later on the field trip.

 

“ _Hi, baby, good morning,_ ” Tony shot a warm smile at his youngest son, “ _breakfast?_ ”

 

“Yup,” Peter climbed onto one of the stools and pulled an empty bowl towards himself and started pouring cereal and milk into it. Peter glanced at one of Joe’s holographs and saw that his big brother made a mistake in his calculations, “ _Joe, you’re using the wrong viscosity constant. Babbo, did you sign my permission slip?_ ”

 

Joe swore under his breath and told JARVIS to change the viscosity constant he was previously using, while Tony asked “Permission slip for what?” and tilting his head to the side trying to remember if Peter ever said anything about a permission slip.

 

“ _The permission slip for my field trip next week to Oscorp, Babbo_.”

 

“Oscorp?” Tony hissed in disgust, “ _why in the world would your class be going to Oscorp? To learn about what not to do in life? I guess that’s a valuable lesson_.”

 

Joe snickered from beside him and Peter shot him an annoyed look, “No, Babbo. I told you, they recently allowed a section of their R&D floor to be accessible to the public. They’re going to be doing a 3D tissue printing demo for us. It’s cool!”

 

“ _Peebee, we do 3D tissue printing all the time at home. It’s about as exciting as watching bread toasting for you_.”

 

“ _Yeah well, it’s good to see what the other side is doing with their time these days. I could be scoping out the competition, Babbo._ ”

 

“ _Oscorp is as much a competition to SI as Apple is. Which is to say none at all. Why don’t you try pulling the other one?_ ” Babbo quirked one of his eyebrows up in a show of disbelief.

 

“ _Peter, could this have anything to do with the fact that I told you yesterday that Liz was going on the field trip?_ ” Joe jumped in the conversation, the holographs seemed to have disappeared in favor of teasing his little brother.

 

“ _Ohoho Liz, huh?_ ” Babbo looked like he just scored a jackpot, “ _Now, who is this Liz and how come I only heard about this now?_ ”

 

“ _No- no one!_ ” Peter sputtered in embarrassment, shooting a glare at Joe who was smirking unapologetically back at him, “she’s no one.” Peter tried in vain to hide the blush that he was pretty sure was creeping up his skin right now. Dang it, why couldn’t he have inherited Babbo’s olive-toned skin considering that the gene carrying that trait would be more dominant compared to Papa’s Irish skin gene?

 

“ _She’s my co-captain at the Decathlon team, Babbo. And one very smart and very pretty Alpha at that._ ”

 

“ _Ah, young love._ ” Babbo started swooning dramatically, putting his hand on his chest and his eyes started fluttering dramatically, “I remember the days of feeling twitterpated and that other person was the only thing I could think of.”

 

“Twitterpated? Really, Babbo?”

 

“ _My Bambi is experiencing his first love. I think this deserves an actual Bambi reference._ ”

 

“ _True_.” Joe concurred. Peter groaned, Joe was not helping at all this morning.

 

 _“So, tell me more about her,_ ” Babbo said again, “ _what is she like? Is she nice? Does she respect your boundaries?_ ”

 

“I-- I don’t know!” Peter shrieked, “ _just-- will you sign the permission slip or not?_ ” Peter was close to pleading if only to shut down this whole conversation.

 

“ _Alright, alright._ _Just don’t come crying to me when the trip ended up being a disaster because Norman Osborn takes the “mad” in “mad scientist” too literally._ ” Babbo relented, “JARVIS, will you please add my electronic signature to Petey’s permission slip and send it to Peter’s teacher?”

 

“Consider it done, Sir.”

 

“Thanks, J, you’re a gem.”

 

“I aim to please, Sir.”

 

“ _Alright, okay, thanks for signing the permission slip, Babbo. Joe, we need to hustle or we’ll miss the bus._ ” Peter said in one breath, eager to leave before Babbo started to ask him more questions.

 

“ _Hold on, I’m drinking the milk._ ” Joe responded indulgently, he was taking his sweet ass time drinking said milk. Clearly he was determined to troll Peter this morning.

 

“Come on…” Peter started pulling on Joe’s arm, the one not holding the bowl, urging him to finish up so they could go.

 

They finally left with Babbo telling them, “Bye! Learn something!”

 

* * *

 

 

The old adage was that “parents are always right”, but Peter wasn’t gonna give Babbo the satisfaction of saying “I told you so!”. It was enough that by being a genius, Babbo was right about things 90% of the time (Peter and Joe did the math on one boring afternoon. Papa was right about 92% of the time), if Peter told him he was right about the Oscorp field trip, he would be insufferable, saying things like “this is why you should always listen to your Babbo”, or “Babbo knows best”, nevermind the fact that he and Papa actively encouraged them to always think critically. Peter surmised that nobody was immune from paradoxes for a reason.

 

Peter didn’t even know how it happened. One second he was taking pictures of the lab for the school newspaper with his new DSLR camera, a birthday present from Uncle Sam, and the next second he felt something painful on the back of his right hand. At first he just shrugged it off as phantom pains and went back to what he was doing previously, putting the whole ordeal at the back of his mind.

 

But that was this afternoon. Right now, he was sweating profusely in his bed even after he asked JARVIS to lower the temperature in his room. He felt a fever coming on, his eyes felt heavy, his ears were ringing and everything just felt too much right now. Peter whimpered as he snuggled further down into his bed, sluggishly pulling the covers up over his head in the hopes that everything would feel less intense, less bright, less loud and less smelly if he was surrounded by darkness.

 

“ _Peebee? You okay?_ ” Joe’s voice filtered in through the darkness. Distantly, he knew Joe wasn’t speaking loudly at all, but his splitting headache made him feel like Joe was using a loudspeaker pointed right in his ears to speak to him. Peter could only whimper pitifully.

 

“ _I’ll take that as a no._ ” Joe stepped into the room, and sat gingerly down beside his little brother’s curled up form on the bed, “ _Hey, what’s the matter?_ ”

 

“I think I have a fever,” Peter answered, his voice sounded weak and pained in Joe’s ears.

 

“Going to Oscorp gave you a fever? Wow, Peebee you’re such a Stark.” Joe joked, trying to lighten up the mood.

 

“Stark-Rogers.”

 

Joe smiled, “Sure, Peebee. You need anything? I’ll get you a cold compress, okay?” Joe said again, “Babbo’s not home. Auntie Pep kidnapped him to the factory in Long Island. Papa’s plane is landing soon. I’ll ask him to make his famous chicken noodle soup for you.”

 

“Sounds good, Bubbles.” Peter answered, referencing the Powerpuff Girls nickname the Stark-Rogers boys had for each other.

 

“Get some rest, Buttercup.”

 

And that was all Peter knew.

He was aware later on of Papa coming in to his room, stroking his head and murmuring some words. Irish words, Peter thought. Peter didn’t know what they meant but the way Papa said it elicited such warmth in Peter. Peter felt Papa kissed his forehead, Papa’s scent enveloping him and fell back to sleep. Then he felt Babbo, crooning the lullaby he always sang to them when they were little and swapping the now-warm cloth on Peter’s forehead with a colder one. Peter felt Babbo settled in next to him, curling around him and Peter snuggled closer to his Babbo. Minutes later, he smelled Papa’s scent in his room again. Peter knew from experience that his parents would be spending the night camped out in his room, they always did so every time he or any of his siblings were sick. Peter relaxed into his bed and fell back asleep, comforted by the knowledge that his parents were here with him, protecting him and comforting him.

 

Peter’s family was extraordinary in their capability to love and comfort each other. As far as Peter was concerned, that was the only “remarkable talent” that counted.

 

* * *

 

 

Peter felt better the next morning. In fact, he felt better than he ever felt in his life.

 

The first hint that something was different was the fact that he was able to see clearly without his glasses on. Peter hadn’t been able to see without his glasses since he was 10 years old. So that was weird. Nice, but weird.

 

Next hint that something was different was when he totally busted down his door just by trying to open in. Peter stared in disbelief at the door in his hand, which he was holding as if it weighed no more than a piece of paper instead of a reinforced wood and gingerly placed it on the side, propped up on the wall.

 

“Uh, JARVIS, is there any structural integrity issues that I’m unaware of? That occured overnight?”

 

“No, Master Peter. The Tower is as structurally sound as it has always been. Any changes that occurred overnight happened with you, Sir.”

 

“Huh? What do you mean?”

 

“Based on my scans, your myopia has been reversed. You now have 20/20 vision.”

 

“Yeah, I can see that.” Peter breathed out, “but what about this?” he gestured at the ruined door by his side.

 

Before JARVIS could answer, however, Papa walked into his room, a bright smile on his face when he saw his youngest boy up and moving.

 

“Hi, sweetheart. Good to see you up and moving. Are you feeling better today?” Papa enveloped him in a hug which Peter readily returned, resting his head on Papa’s chest. He had missed his Papa while he was away, though it was only for a few days. Another peculiar thing happened as he hugged Papa. It was no secret that when they were little, the boys loved to hear the sound of their parents’ heart beats. Often times they would fall asleep to its soothing rhythm. As far as Peter knew, he was the only one of his siblings who would still sought out Papa or Babbo’s heart beats, Joe and Ulysses have both grown out of it. But today, the soothing beats of Papa’s heart morphed into a thunderous one, one that Peter could hear miles away, even without laying his head down on Papa’s chest and Peter flinched away from the hug as the loud sound assaulted his suddenly sensitive eardrums.

 

“Peter? _A stoirin_ , what’s the matter?” Papa asked, brow furrowing in concern.

 

“Nothing, Papa.” Peter answered quickly, hopefully assuaging his parent’s concern, “just a little bit of headache, no biggie.” he shrugged.

 

Papa’s face turned from concerned to understanding,“Well, I hope you’ll feel better soon, buddy. It always saddens me whenever you or one of your brothers get sick.”

 

“I’ll be fine, Papa. Nothing a cup of orange juice couldn’t fix.” Peter grinned.

 

“I made your favorite breakfast: biscuits and gravy. Hope you’re up for it.”

 

“I’m always up for biscuits and gravy, Papa!”

 

Steve’s laughter trailed after him as Peter sprinted to the kitchen to make sure that there was still enough biscuits and gravy for him. Suddenly he was so very very hungry, he could eat a whole horse. Heck, maybe the whole barn full of them.

  


* * *

 

 

In hindsight, Peter should have known that his sudden reversal of myopia, super strength and huge increase in appetite was a harbinger of something more to come. Now, he discovered the hard way that he could stick to things. Walls, floors, ceiling and on one momentous occasion, the side of Avengers Tower. Additionally, he now had something resembling a sixth sense, except he couldn’t see dead people, just that he had a feeling whenever something bad would happen. On more than one occasion he knew something bad was going to happen even before the Avengers alarm sounded off.

 

He couldn’t very well explain to his parents and his family that he has this tingling sensation in the back of his head that signaled something bad was happening. That would invite too many questions Peter had no answers to. And he thought he’d try to figure out what was it that was going on first before bringing in the big guns.

 

It hasn’t escaped his attention that he now had the abilities of a spider. When Uly and Joe found out about this, they would be giving him so much crap for it. But whatever, Peter thought. He’s the one with the superpower now, not them. Out of the three of them, he was the one closest to realizing their lifelong dreams of becoming a Powerpuff Girl and an Avenger, so really, Uly and Joe could bite Peter’s dust. His parents might be scared shitless though. Tony and Steve had stated numerous times that they wanted their children to have a more “normal” life, one that didn’t involve being attacked by a giant squid while walking down the streets or fighting off alien invasions on any given Sunday.  They might be less than thrilled with Peter’s new powers or might even sought to “cure” Peter of his newfound abilities.

 

But deep down inside, Peter finally felt like he found his niche. He finally found his purpose. Sure, the way he got there was non-conventional, but it felt as if his whole life led to this moment. Really, with Tony Stark and Steve Rogers as parents there was no way he would have turn out any other way. A lifetime of listening to his parents telling him and his siblings that they need to put the needs of others above their own self interests, that they have an obligation to help others to the best of their abilities and that in times of conflicts, doing nothing and staying neutral was empowering the oppressor, it was only natural that Peter ended up using his newfound powers the way he did.

 

The world has the Avengers to protect them. The citizenry of New York, well, they have their friendly neighborhood Spiderman to count on.

 

* * *

 

 

Peter had been Spiderman for a few months now, and honestly he was amazed by how well he had been keeping this secret. He tried to steer clear of the Avengers’ way, trying not to bring too much attention to himself. Although there was a few close calls when he was helping out the Avengers aka his parents and aunts and uncles, and he almost slipped by calling Captain America Papa and almost talked in Italian with Babbo.

 

That was a bit not good.

 

It was summer now, and Ulysses was home from school much to the delight of his parents and his little brothers. They had been spending a lot of time together while Papa and Babbo were away in Europe. Babbo had been invited to give a keynote speech at CERN for their sixtieth year anniversary, and of course Papa had to tag along because he was secretly a nerd and also because those two could never be apart for long. Not that they ever wanted to.

 

Peter had just finished patrolling the neighborhood, rushing back home by swinging from the skyscrapers that littered the island of Manhattan, because he, Uly and Joe were going to go out for a Mets game soon. He made it to Park Avenue where Avengers Tower was located and started scaling up the building to the penthouse where his room was located. Locating the hinge he made outside for easy sneaking in and out, Peter dropped down from the ceiling in his Spiderman costume and stripped his cowl off, intending to change before his brothers could come and fetch him for the game.

 

There was a clattering sound from behind him, which was strange because nobody should be in his room unless U figured out a way to escape from Babbo’s workshop again. Sighing, Peter turned around to fetch U and escorted him back to the lab when he staggered mid-step as he saw Joe lounging on Peter’s bed, _Crime and Punishment_ in the original Russian, because Joe wouldn't be caught dead reading the translated version, splayed open on his lap. He must have been doing some light reading and there was a disbelieving expression on his face. To be fair, it wasn’t everyday one found out that one’s little brother was the new superhero on the block everybody was talking about.

 

“Peebee…” Joe whispered hoarsely, “ _Oh my God...please tell me that this isn’t what I think it is._ ”

 

“ _If what you’re thinking is ‘wow that is an elaborate cabaret costume that Peter has on’, then yes that’s definitely what it is_.” Peter said, trying to do some damage control.

 

Before Joe could answer that and before Peter could get rid of more damning evidence of his identity as Spiderman, Peter’s door slammed open revealing Ulysses, wearing a Mets baseball jersey on the other side.

  
“ _Hey, Peter, Joe, you guys ready for--_ what the fuck!”

**Author's Note:**

> Peter's nickname Peebee is from my headcanon that Peter loves Peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches as a kid, so his parents and older brothers called him Peebee (PB) which coincidentally is also his first and middle initials: Peter Benjamin
> 
> Thanks for reading! :)


End file.
